FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Question: Why did God allow the Apostasy to occur?
Question: Why did God allow the Apostasy to occur?
Although God is in ultimate control of the universe, He allows others-including men and fallen angels like Satan-free will and considerable freedom of action
If there were some people who would have accepted the Gospel as taught in Mormonism, why did God allow the earthly Church to pass from the earth?
Although God is in ultimate control of the universe, He allows others-including men and fallen angels like Satan-free will and considerable freedom of action. This is true to the extent that Paul could call Satan "the god of this world!" [1] It isn't that God doesn't have the power to shut down the Devil's operation. He simply chooses not to-for now. We may infer from the Book of Mormon passage cited earlier (Alma 29:8) that God has His hand over all the earth, dispensing His truth in quantities large enough to propel people toward Him, but only as each people is prepared to receive it. That is, God reaches out to people where they are, drawing them toward Him, but never forcing. Christians apparently rebelled in large enough numbers (and many who did not rebel were martyred) that God thought it wise to remove His priesthood authority, and leave the world with a lesser amount of truth, until such time as the Gospel and priesthood could be restored in preparation for the return of Jesus Christ in glory.
This problem must be faced by other Christians-only on a slightly smaller scale than that posited by the LDS
Such a question could legitimately be asked of Evangelicals. That is, the Gospel of Jesus Christ-in any form-has been essentially unheard of in vast areas of the earth throughout history. Were there no Australian aborigines in the second century who would have accepted Jesus had they heard of Him? To answer in the negative would smack of racism. And if the answer is yes, then why did God leave them without any chance to even hear of Jesus Christ? Didn't God have the power to bring them the Gospel? Didn't He care?
Obviously this problem must be faced by other Christians-only on a slightly smaller scale than that posited by the LDS. The answer-for both Latter-day Saints and other Christians-must be that God, in His Wisdom, chose to give some people more truth, and some less.
Notes
- ↑ 2 Corinthians 4:4